It’s Okay to Copy

TL;DR – Copying behavior is always frowned upon in our society. However, without copying, everything would evolve much slower as we have to get better at what we are doing on our own. Determine what fits you and build it to your expectations. That being said, there is a line, do not copy directly, instead give it improvements or your own flair.

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The action of copying another person is known throughout society to be a morally bad thing to do. The word itself is neutral and doesn’t imply this but that is how we see it.

Maybe it comes from when we were younger when most of us were told not to copy on tests in school. It’s possible that very perspective on the word itself has stuck with us.

I find that interesting because without copying others, there would be a lot more problems in the world. Everything would evolve much slower. No one would be doing anything similar, so each of us would have to get better at what we were doing, on our own.

Instead of watching others do the same and getting inspired from that, or others evolving at the same time as you – we would all have “one thing” to get better at.

No one is the first to do nearly anything at this stage.

There’s also a difference between being inspired by something and copying it straight out. For example, Gary Vaynerchuk, a very successful entrepreneur and internet personality, tells people to literally copy what he does on YouTube with his personal brand.

Find out what type of content suits you, and then create it but make it true to who you are. For a lot of people, this means vlogging which is very similar to what Gary himself is doing.

Would that be considered copying? Or being inspired and doing something similar?

There is of course a line, to not copy directly what someone else is doing without adding on your own improvements. Being an entrepreneur, copying and tracking your competitors moves is a must but then adding onto that and always improving it to get better results.

Who’s to say the people that started whatever is in question, didn’t copy it from someone else themselves? They more than likely did.

Another example: when I opened up an email and I saw an email signature. As simple as that. I thought to myself “Wow, that’s professional”. Then I stopped for a second and realised that I wanted that exact thought process to happen when people opened up my emails.

I wanted to have that effect on people. It would only add value to my communications. I was inspired to do something similar, but change it around and make it work better for me.

Human evolution itself is copying the previous and making it better.

In summary, without copying things would be completely different, even worse. It’s a need to copy and make everything better. It’s a part of evolution.